What's up with all the "fossils" on Mars? They are figments of our imaginations, driven by our interest to be there – on Mars – and to know that we are not alone. Altogether, they feed a multitude of web pages and threads across the internet. »2/28/15 10:10am Saturday 10:10am

Now would be a good time to update your desktop wallpaper. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has snapped a spectacular — if not inexplicable — wide-angled self-portrait at the Mojave Site on Mount Sharp where the probe is currently drilling for samples. Here's how NASA created the extraordinary shot. »2/25/15 6:40am 2/25/15 6:40am

On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 sent home the very first television pictures of Mars during its historic flyby. But instead of waiting for time-consuming image processing, impatient scientists created this awesome colour-by-numbers wall chart from the raw data.»2/25/15 2:01am 2/25/15 2:01am

When Curiosity goes looking for organic molecules in Mars's solid surface, it vaporizes a rock sample and sniffs the gas that comes out. The plan could be going awry thanks to a pesky little mineral called jarosite. »2/22/15 10:01pm 2/22/15 10:01pm

Astronomers have been unable to explain the sudden but fleeting appearance of massive plumes high up in the Martian atmosphere. Rising to altitudes of over 155 miles (250 km), these hazy structures are forcing scientists to re-evaluate what they know about the Martian atmosphere. »2/17/15 8:00am 2/17/15 8:00am

This photo from the European Space Agency's Mars Express is of the planet's south pole, and the layers of white are frozen water and carbon dioxide. As much as the pole looks smooth here, it's surface is usually compared to swiss cheese. »2/16/15 1:30am 2/16/15 1:30am

Do you see it? That incredibly tiny dot in the center of that blue perimeter. That is NASA's $2.5 billion rover, steadily working away and analyzing the Martian soil. This image was captured on Dec. 13, 2014 by the HiRISE camera housed inside NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. »2/09/15 5:21am 2/09/15 5:21am

Look at the above image. Doesn't that shadow look like a man in a spacesuit of some sort working on the Curiosity rover? Which is supposed to be on Mars, and not where humans can mess with it? »2/03/15 4:30am 2/03/15 4:30am

Mars is often referred to as the Red Planet, but its signature color is only skin-deep. Beneath its rusty regolith, Mars has many other hues, including large dark regions formed by ancient lava flows. Now, researchers believe they may have found a pieceof Mars' dark plains here on Earth, in the form of a meteorite…»1/31/15 3:11pm 1/31/15 3:11pm

During the State of the Union address, President Obama said stirring things about human spaceflight and the future. But these are the same dreams we've been talking about for years, and without more funding for NASA these dreams will fizzle instead of coming true. »1/20/15 11:45pm 1/20/15 11:45pm

Rumors are swirling that the British Beagle 2 lander — missing since Christmas Day in 2003 — has been spotted on the surface of the Red Planet by NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter. »1/13/15 9:00am 1/13/15 9:00am

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is one of the most important books about terraforming (and interplanetary colonization) of the past 20 years. And Robinson spent 10 years working on it, learning a lot about the subject as he went. But it all started becuase he fantasized about going backpacking on Mars. »1/08/15 4:30pm 1/08/15 4:30pm

It may not look like much — just an old rock with dust on it. But after careful examination of this and other images taken of the Martian surface, a geobiologist is now claiming that these distinctive surface features could have only come from one source: microbes. »1/06/15 9:00am 1/06/15 9:00am

Just expand this image a little bit and you'll see amazing detail — that's frost forming on ripples of sand, its distinctive wrinkly appearance created by wind whipping along this slope on the inside of a Martian crater. »1/02/15 5:02pm 1/02/15 5:02pm